Spike Lee Biography

Controversial (arousing opposing viewpoints) filmmaker Spike Lee is known
for powerful films such as
She's Gotta Have It
(1986),
School Daze
(1988),
Do the Right Thing
(1989),
Mo' Better Blues
(1990),
Malcolm X
(1992), and many others.

Lee's youth

Shelton Jackson Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 20, 1957. He
grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Lee's awareness of his African
American identity was established at an early age. His mother,
Jacquelyn, encouraged her children's enthusiasm for African
American art and literature. She took her children to galleries, plays,
and museums. Her position as a teacher at a private school was often the
only income the family had. His father, Bill, was an accomplished jazz
musician. Spike would sometimes go with his father to the clubs where he
played.

By the time Lee was old enough to attend school, the already independent
child had earned the nickname his mother had given him as an infant,
Spike—an indirect reference to his toughness. When he, his two
younger brothers, and one younger sister were offered the option of
attending the chiefly white private school where his mother taught, Lee
chose instead to go to public school, where he would be assured the
companionship of black peers. He graduated from John Dewey High School
in Brooklyn. For college, Lee chose to go to the all-black college his
father and grandfather had attended, Morehouse College, where he majored
in mass communication.

Pursued film career

It was at Morehouse that Lee found his calling. Following his
mother's unexpected death in 1977, Lee's friends tried to
cheer him with frequent trips to the movies. He quickly became a fan of
directors and movies of that time and discovered that he wanted to make
films that would capture the black experience, and he was willing to do
so by whatever means necessary.

Lee pursued his passion at New York University (NYU), where he enrolled
in the Tisch School of Arts graduate film program. He was one of only a
handful of African American students. Lee went on to produce a
forty-five-minute film that won him the 1983 Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences' Student
Academy Award,
Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.
Although the honor improved his credibility as a director, it did not
pay the bills. Lee worked for a movie distribution house cleaning and
shipping film.

Scored a surprise hit with
She's Gotta Have It

When Lee filmed
She's Gotta Have It
a year later, his determination to be a director paid off. After Island
Pictures agreed to distribute the movie, it finally opened in 1986. A
light comedy,
She's Gotta Have It
pokes fun at gender relations and offers an insightful spin on
stereotypical macho male roles. It packed houses with African American
audiences and with a crossover, art-house crowd. With the success of
She's Gotta Have It,
Lee became known in cinematic circles not only as a director, but also
as a comic actor. He played a supporting role in the film and was
tremendously popular as this character.

School Daze:
a microcosm of black life

Lee next made a musical called
School Daze.
A film about color discrimination (treating people differently based on
race, gender, or nationality) within the African American community,
School Daze
draws on Lee's years at Morehouse. He saw the lighter skinned
African Americans as having the material possessions and polish that the
southern, rural students did not have. This black caste (division of
society) system, Lee explained to
Newsweek,
was not limited to just this collegiate set. Lee used it as a small
sample of black life in general.
School Daze
created a commotion in the black community: while many applauded
Lee's efforts to explore a complex social problem, others were
offended by his

Spike Lee.
Reproduced by permission of

AP/Wide World Photos

.

willingness to "air dirty laundry." Everyone agreed that
the film was controversial.

Explored racial tensions in
Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing,
released in 1989, confirmed Lee's reputation as someone willing
to seize controversial issues by the horns. A story of simmering racial
tension between Italian Americans and African Americans in the
Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, the film becomes a call to arms
when violence erupts in response to the killing of an African American
man by white police officers. Critical response to the film was both
enthusiastic and wary.

Striking a balance:
Mo' Better Blues

Lee chose a lighter topic for his next film—a romance. The saga
is about a self-centered jazz trumpeter, Bleek Gilliam, whose personal
life plays second fiddle to his music. The movie explores the different
relationships this man has with friends, family, and women.
Bleek's character was inspired by Lee's jazz-musician
father, Bill Lee, who wrote the film's score. Although recognized
for its technical mastery and snappy score,
Mo' Better Blues
received unenthusiastic reviews.

In
Jungle Fever,
Lee's next film, he looks at issues of race, class, and gender
by focusing on community response to the office affair of a married,
black architect and his Italian American secretary. Lee concludes that
interracial relationships are often fueled by culturally based,
stereotypical expectations.

Malcolm X

Sparking controversy from the beginning, the making of
Malcolm X
(1925–1965) became a personal mission for Lee, who had long been
an admirer of the legendary African American leader. The film traces
Malcolm X's development from his poor, rural roots to his final
years as an activist. Lee worked hard to overcome many obstacles that
threatened the creation of his masterpiece. His creative problem solving
and dedication to the film were the forces behind its completion.

Although
Malcolm X
received no Oscars, the film played a significant role in the elevation
of the black leader to legendary status; it also spawned a cultural
phenomenon often referred to as "Malcolm-mania."
Promotional merchandise for the film was marketed by Lee himself through
Spike's Joint, a chain of stores that comprise a portion of the
director's growing business empire.

Lee is married

In mid-1993 Lee began shooting his seventh feature film,
Crooklyn,
a comic tribute to his childhood memories of life in Brooklyn in the
1970s. He managed to take a break from filming, however, to marry
Linette Lewis. Lewis, a lawyer, had been romantically linked to Lee for
a year prior to their wedding.
Crooklyn
was released in 1994 to mixed reviews and a mild reception at the box
office.

Lee fared far better in 1995 with his next film,
Clockers.
It tells the story of two brothers who fall under suspicion of murder.
One, a drug dealer, had been ordered by his supplier to kill the victim.
The other, an upstanding family man, confesses to the crime, saying that
he was attacked in the parking lot. The film won outstanding reviews,
with some critics citing it as Lee's best work.

In 1996 Lee released
Get on the Bus,
which focuses on a diverse group of African American men riding a bus
on their way to the Million Man March (a rally organized in 1995 to
celebrate the strength of the African American community) in Washington,
D.C. They learn to overcome their differences as they unite for the
march. Lee followed that film with
4 Little Girls,
a documentary about the bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, church in
1963, where four African American girls lost their lives.

Lee as a teacher

Lee works as an educator as well. He has taught at New York University
and also at Harvard. In March of 2002 Lee became the
artistic director of NYU's Kanbar Institute of Film and
Television. He works with students on their thesis projects and helps
them to make contacts in the entertainment field. Lee enjoys working
with the students and challenges them to work hard.

"Fight the power," the theme song to his 1989 film
Do the Right Thing,
could easily be Spike Lee's personal motto. From his earliest
days as a student filmmaker to his $33-million epic
Malcolm X,
Lee has shown a willingness to tackle prickly issues of significance to
the African American community—and has enjoyed the controversy
his films produce.